


Yevgeny's Sucky Halloween

by koganphrancis



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: AU, Fluff, Gen, Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 13:37:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8403703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koganphrancis/pseuds/koganphrancis
Summary: A cute little Hallloween tale about a favorite little boy.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Yev's a little bit older in this AU, and none of Seasons 6 or 7 apply here, nor does the ending of Season 5...
> 
> This is pure fluff-the only reason I didn't rate it for everyone is because of some typical Milkovich swearing and Mandy's brief description of something an off-page OC got caught doing.

“Hey, come and help me with this please?” Mickey asked from the table. Ian was on the couch, watching some seasonal TV after a long day at work.

“What’s up?” he asked Mickey, strolling over to the table where Mickey had spread out a newspaper. There were a couple of pumpkins on the table and a plate and some markers, and when Ian got close enough and walked around the table, he saw Mickey had a big pumpkin squeezed between his legs.

“Uh, do you two want to be alone?” Ian asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Very funny, smartass. I read online how it’s better to cut the bottom out of a pumpkin for a jack o’lantern because then you can rest the candle on a plate instead of the uneven pumpkin bottom. Supposed to be safer and shit,” Mickey explained.

“Oh, makes sense,” Ian said.

“Yeah, but what they didn’t tell you is how you’re supposed to carve a circle in the bottom of the pumpkin-if I put it on its side it rolls around, plus with the stem you can’t put it on a table or anything without breaking it off. I tried this,” he gestured between his legs, “but it feels like it’s going to slip out. I figure you can hold it for me while I cut.”

“So you want me to hold it between my legs while you wield a knife around?” Ian said, his eyes getting as big as saucers.

“Just sit down and hold it in your hands. I’ll be careful. I care about what you got between your legs as much as you do, believe me,” Mickey assured him, giving said area an appreciative look.

Ian laughed and sat down and took the pumpkin from Mickey. He had no problem holding it steady in his large hands while Mickey cut into it. Ian rested the pumpkin on his thighs near his knees, the stem sticking down between his legs. Mickey made quick work of cutting out the bottom and then jumped up to get the kitchen trash pail to scoop the insides of the pumpkin into while Ian continued to hold it for him. Once Mickey had gotten it all cleaned out, he went to the sink to wash his hands. Ian placed the pumpkin on the plate and it fit perfectly.

“Shouldn’t you be doing this with Yev?” Ian asked.

Mickey shut off the tap and grabbed a dishtowel to dry his hands. “He’s still a little too little to be around the butterfly knife-I got him some pumpkins he can draw faces onto with markers, I’m only carving into this one. Speaking of which, why don’t you draw the eyes, nose, and mouth on that one and I’ll try to carve them out?”

Ian turned so he was facing the table and picked up a Sharpie. Mickey carried the trash bin back to its spot by the kitchen sink and decided to change out the bag so the pumpkin innards wouldn’t start to smell like garbage.

Unbeknownst to them both, the cutest little hobgoblin in the entire south side of Chicago had gotten out of bed and had been watching the TV screen for a good few minutes. Yevgeny hadn’t meant to-he had been in bed and asleep but had woken up needing to pee. He went to the bathroom and then decided he was thirsty and figured he’d ask his dad or Ian-whoever he found first-for a glass of water. All the lights were out in the living room, but the TV was on, so he walked around the couch to see if one of his big people were sitting on it. No one was, but the TV caught his eye. Spooky music was playing, and the movie was in black and white. There was a man, and people in the movie seemed ascared of him, from what Yev could tell. The man had pale skin, and black hair slicked back from up high on his forehead where it made a sort of vee shape, and heavy black eyebrows that he moved up and down a lot. Yevgeny tilted his head, watching the man and trying to figure out if he had seen him before, he looked sorta familiar. Yevgeny was thinking so hard he forgot he wasn’t supposed to watch TV unless it had been okayed by one of the bigs. The man was silently walking up behind a pretty blonde lady, but she didn’t know he was there. The music was building and building and Yev was feeling more scared by the second, so he tore his eyes away from the television and looked towards the light coming from the dining table. He saw Ian was sitting there, it looked like he was looking at something on the table in front of him. Before Yevgeny could look closer to see what Ian had, he saw his dad come up behind Ian, grab him on the shoulders, and sink his face into the side of Ian’s neck. Yev was startled and looked back at the TV screen, and just at that moment, that’s what the pale man did to the blonde lady. That’s who the scary man looked like! His daddy! Yevgeny forgot all about being thirsty and ran as fast as his little feet would take him back into his room. He shut the door behind him and flew into his bed and got his head under the covers, squeezing his teddy bear as tight as he could.

The next day after school Yevgeny went to his friend Petey’s house to play. They were in Ms. Hansen’s first grade class together and had been best friends since kindergarten.

Petey brought Yevgeny into his room to show him his big brother’s Halloween costume, well, part of it anyway. His brother Marcus was going to be Freddy Krueger for Halloween. Petey explained to Yevgeny Freddy Krueger was in a movie-“rated R”, he told Yev, breathlessly. Marcus was in middle school and on Halloween night the school was hosting a big party where all the kids would be “locked in” till their parents came and picked them up.

Petey was showing Yev a decidedly scary looking glove with fake blades sticking past the fingers when Marcus came in.

“Why are you shrimps in my stuff?” he snarled, but neither boy was afraid. Marcus was actually a pretty cool big brother, he always made sure no one hassled Petey or Yev while he was around, and let the message get through to anyone who might think about messing with them in his absence that he had a definite skill set, and he would track them down, and he would hurt them. He reminded Yevgeny of his dad, a little bit.

“I was just showing Yev your Freddy glove, I wasn’t hurting anything,” Petey defended himself.

“Gimme that.” Marcus snatched the glove from his brother’s hands. He put the glove on and waved it under Petey and Yevgeny’s noses, wriggling his fingers. “What do you think? Ain’t it cool?”

Personally, Yevgeny thought it was pretty scary, but he thought Marcus was cool, so maybe it was all right?

“Um, is that Freddy guy like Wolverine?” Yev asked, looking at the glove askance.

“What? No! Wolverine’s a good guy, mainly. Freddy’s all bad-psycho, you know?” Marcus said.

Yevgeny gave an involuntary shudder. He didn’t know what “psycho” meant, but he knew people sometimes said things like that about Ian and it made his dad madder than Yev ever saw him. To Yev that was a bad word and one he already knew he’d never say. Marcus was gratified by the little shiver he saw Yevgeny do, and decided to be magnanimous.

“You dudes want some mac and cheese? I’ll make it for you,” Marcus said, putting the glove up on his bureau and leading the way out of the room. The smaller boys followed readily, Petey’s mom usually only gave them boring healthy snacks after school.

Out in the kitchen Yev was looking at the Halloween decorations plastered all over the kitchen. Petey’s house had a deck built off the back and there was a sliding glass door that had colorful clings on it. There were pumpkins and witches and ghosts and then Yev saw it, a man with black hair and scary bloodshot eyes and sharp teeth. Yev stared at it with wide eyes for a moment.

“Is…is that guy from a movie too?” he croaked.

Marcus glanced over from his spot in front of the microwave.

“Yeah, that’s Dracula. He’s from an old time movie.”

“Is he rated R?” Yev asked.

Marcus scoffed. “Naw, they show it on TV all the time.”

“Is he…” Yev couldn’t bring himself to say “psycho”, so he switched tack. “What is he?”

“He’s a vampire,” Petey spoke up. Even he knew that much.

“Are vampires bad?” Yevgeny asked, his eyes huge.

“Pretty badass, I guess,” Marcus said. “They drink all your blood and turn you into a vampire too. Then you can’t die-or, you are dead, you have to sleep in a coffin-but it’s like you’re undead and you’re doomed to wander the earth, drinking blood instead of eating food for all time…” He made his voice super scary and walked over so he was towering above Yevgeny, raising his hands and forming them into a claw-like shape, like the guy on the window cling. Yevgeny gulped.

“How…how do they get your blood to drink?” he asked, remembering the blonde lady in the movie.

“They bite into your neck and suck it all out,” Marcus said, matter-of-factly. The microwave dinged and he dropped his arms and the conversation. Cheesy Mac took precedence over spooking his brother’s little friend. He didn’t notice Yev had gone as pale as the ghosts on the window next to him.

Yevgeny was remembering something else now-his dad sinking his face into Ian’s neck last night-had he been turning Ian into a vampire? And “badass” was another word Yevgeny knew not to use, but he knew his big people used it, and he knew it applied to his dad.

That weekend Yev was spending Saturday night with his Aunt Mandy. She was picking him up in the afternoon to take him to get a Halloween costume and then they’d get something for dinner and Yev would sleep over. He slept over at least a couple times a month, Aunt Mandy always said Daddy and Ian wanted some alone time, but Yevgeny didn’t get it-how could they be alone if they were together?

Usually Yevgeny loved sleeping over at Aunt Mandy’s. Her couch folded out into a bed and no one else he knew had a bed like that. But this weekend he just couldn’t muster any excitement.

“You feeling okay, buddy?” Ian asked, his big eyes full of concern, watching Yevgeny pick at his lunch.

“I’m fine, Ian,” he said with a sigh.

Ian leaned across the table and put his hand on Yev’s forehead. He didn’t feel like he had a temperature, but Ian didn’t like how listless he seemed-he sure looked like he could be coming down with something.

“You know, you could stay home today and sleep in your own bed tonight, I’m sure Aunt Mandy would take you to Target tomorrow…”

“NO! I want to sleep at Aunt Mandy’s,” Yevgeny blurted out, looking around nervously.

“Okay, okay,” Ian tried to calm him. “That’s the plan and we’ll stick to it, but if you feel like coming home later, no matter how late it is, you know Daddy and I will come get you, all right?”

Yevgeny just nodded and went back to picking at his food.

Mandy arrived right after lunch, and Mickey was talking to her as he bundled Yev into his jacket.

“So, be sure to try the costume on in the store, and figure he’ll probably need to wear a sweatshirt under it on Halloween night, so get it a little big, but not so big that it’ll be loose on him when he wears it to school for the parade, because then he’ll just have a T-shirt on underneath…” Mickey was lecturing.

“Dude, will you chill? We went through all this last year when I got him his Winnie-the-Pooh costume. I did all right then, didn’t I?” Mandy said in an exasperated tone. “Honestly, thinks he’s the only one looking out for the kid,” she grumbled under her breath, but Mickey heard anyway and flipped her off behind Yev’s back where the boy couldn’t see it as Mickey zipped up his fall jacket. Mandy flipped him off right back.

Mickey looked into Yevgeny’s face and noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the lack of sparkle in his son’s blue eyes. Like Ian, he felt Yev’s forehead, but the boy didn’t feel overly warm.

“You feeling all right, Yev?” Mickey asked in his soft concerned voice.

“I’m fine, Daddy, I just want to sleep at Aunt Mandy’s.”

“I told him we could come get him if he changes his mind later,” Ian piped up. He was leaning against the living room doorway, waiting for his turn to kiss Yevgeny goodbye.

Mickey looked from Ian to Yevgeny. “What he said,” he told his son, kissing him on the cheek. Yevgeny seemed to stiffen at the contact, but relaxed as soon as his dad moved away to let Ian have his turn. Ian squatted down and hugged Yev and kissed his hair.

“Have fun, we’ll see you tomorrow,” Ian said, giving Yevgeny one more squeeze.

Yevgeny snatched up his pillow (he always brought his own to use at Aunt Mandy’s) and his teddy bear, and Mandy picked up his tiny little red duffel bag he used for these overnight visits.

“You boys be sure to get to bed at a decent hour,” Mandy joked, kissing her brother’s cheek and then Ian’s as she walked down the hall with her nephew.

Out at Mandy’s car, she tried to take Yevgeny’s bear from him before he scrambled into his booster seat in the back, but Yev hung on to the toy fiercely.

“Don’t you want me to pack T Bear into your duffel bag, Yev?” Mandy asked. “We’re stopping at Target first, then going to my place.” The bear always traveled in the bag on the trips to Mandy’s.

“No, I want to hold him,” Yevgeny said, his voice small and quiet. He hugged the bear while Mandy got him buckled into the seat.

Once they got to Target, Yev seemed more like his usual self. He left T Bear sitting in his booster seat and talked animatedly to Mandy on the way into the store, holding her hand and telling her about the Halloween parade they would have at school, where all the kids lined up and got to march through the other classrooms all dressed up in their costumes.

Inside the store, Mandy first went to the kids’ clothes department and found a thick black sweatshirt in Yev’s size, and then they went to the costumes aisle. All the children’s costumes were at one end of the aisle on both sides and they soon found what they were looking for. This year Yevgeny was going to be BB8, after deciding Winnie-the-Pooh was too babyish for a fulltime first grader. (Mickey and Ian secretly believed that, as adorable as Yev had been as a chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff Pooh, he was going to be even cuter as BB8, but they wisely kept those thoughts amongst themselves.)

Mandy took off Yev’s jacket and pulled the black sweatshirt on over his head, and then tried on the medium sized BB8 costume. It was filled with some sort of stuffing to make it stick out all round the body, and it fastened up the back with Velcro. Yevgeny looked like a perfect little ball in it. It also came with a little stuffed hat that was almost like a beret-it had an elastic band to hold it on the kid’s head and the top of it was stuffed also. The hat piece was fastened with plastic to a piece of cardboard though, so Mandy couldn’t have Yevgeny try that on to get the full effect.

They walked over to a full length mirror fastened to one of the support beams in the store and Yevgeny got a look at himself. His face was lit up.

“I really do look like him, huh, Aunt Mandy?” he said, his little voice full of excitement.

“You sure do, buddy. How’s the fit? Not too tight with that sweatshirt?”

“It feels just right,” Yevgeny smiled.

“Okay, now let’s try it with just your T shirt,” Mandy said, squatting down to unfasten the back. That test went well also, the costume wasn’t too loose without the bulk underneath.

Mandy put the costume and the black sweatshirt in their cart, and told Yev that while they were there she might as well see if there were any costumes she might like, and that she should get a bag of Halloween candy. They walked to the other end of the costume aisle where the grown up’s costumes were. Mandy and her friends usually went to Boystown on Halloween, it was just a safer place to be and the costumes there were always a sight to behold. She narrowed her choices down to a flapper with a feathery boa or a black kitty cat ears and tail that she could just use with some of her own black clothes while Yevgeny looked around at the various costumes.

At his eye level, he couldn’t see much but the middle parts of the costumes, but lots of them had tags at that height that showed photographs of people in the outfits. He had found Spiderman first, and then Batman, and was continuing to look to see if he could find Superman when he came across a tag that had a color picture of a guy who looked a lot like that Dracula from the movie. Yevgeny dropped the tag like it burned him, and scurried back over to Mandy.

Mandy looked down when Yevgeny clutched onto her leg and hip. “Yevgeny? Are you all right? Did someone bother you?” She looked up and down the aisle, but they were the only ones there at the moment.

“Aunt Mandy, can I show you something?”

“Of course.”

Yevgeny let go of her body but grabbed her hand and brought her over to the Dracula costume. He fished the sleeve out from where it was hanging between other costumes and showed her the picture.

“Do you know what that is?” Yevgeny asked.

Mandy looked at the picture and then at Yev, trying to figure out where this was going.

“Sure, it’s a vampire,” Mandy said.

Yevgeny licked his lips. “Are they real?” he whispered.

Mandy paused. Mickey had this thing about keeping Yevgeny a kid as long as possible, and ever since Yev had been able to talk, Mickey had warned his siblings about destroying any childhood magic for him. Mickey wanted Yevgeny to believe Santa Claus and all the Disney characters and the Easter Bunny were real for at least a couple more years, if possible. Mickey and Ian had even done the Elf on the Shelf thing the past couple of years, and Mandy swore they got a bigger kick out of it than Yev ever could.

“Um, sure?” she answered, not sounding too sure herself.

“And, is that what they look like, with the dark hair and dark eyebrows and white skin and their hair pushed back?” It took all Yevgeny’s courage to ask a question he didn’t really want the answer to, if that answer was his dad had all the requirements. If he had known his Aunt Mandy back when she had black hair too and bore a stronger resemblance to his dad, he probably wouldn’t have been able to ask at all, but in all the time he had memory of, she had been a sandy blonde.

Luckily his aunt was also one smart chick, and caught on to what he was driving at.

“Oh,” she said casually, “vampires don’t look like that anymore. That’s what old timey vampires looked like a hundred years ago. These days they’re all sec…um, sweet and they sparkle and wear nice clothes and stuff.”

“Really?” Yevgeny said, looking very relieved already.

“Really. When we get home I bet I can find a movie that shows what they look like these days.”

Yevgeny was thrilled.   Mandy decided on the cat ears figuring there’d be tons of feather boas on display in Boystown, and they grabbed a big bag of bite size Snickers in the next aisle over and checked out and went to Yevgeny’s favorite pizza place for some deep dish and he dug in like he hadn’t eaten in days, which was pretty close to the truth.

When they got to Mandy’s apartment, Mandy hung up the costume on the back of a door after having Yev try the hat on-it fit perfectly, and Yevgeny dug out his toothbrush and pajamas and went about his nighttime routine. At home they’d usually have to tell him at least twice to stop whatever he was doing and start getting ready for bed, but at Mandy’s he would do it on his own because it meant the next step was turning the couch into a bed and that was his favorite part.

Mandy waited for Yev, and then had him help her remove the throw pillows and cushions. When those were out of the way, Mandy would let Yevgeny help her grab onto the nylon loop that pulled the bed out of the couch and he’d tug with all his might. Two metal bars would unfold themselves when the bed was far enough out of the well of the couch, and when they finally hit the floor to be the legs at the middle of the bed, Yev and Mandy would go to either side of the couch and stick their hands between the fold in the mattress and flip it up and over so the metal bar at the end of the bed would also hit the floor and voila! A full size bed was now where Mandy’s couch had been mere minutes before.

Mandy loved how the kid still got a kick out of it, every time. She went to the closet and got the sheets and blankets for the bed, and Yevgeny helped her make up the bed and put his pillow and his bear on there when that step was done. The top third of the mattress could be pulled up so they could rest their backs there and watch TV, but only Mandy was strong enough to do that part. Again, it was part of their routine and she did it without Yev having to ask her to. She kicked off her shoes and grabbed the remote, and they settled onto the couch to watch some TV.

“I bet I can find you one of those sparkly vampire movies on demand…” Mandy was saying half to herself, scrolling through the onscreen guide. “Oh, but wait, Starz is doing a Twilight marathon, that’s just what I was looking for.” She clicked on the channel and one of the movies was already into the story. She didn’t know which of the movies it was, and it didn’t matter-she’d just show Yev the twinkling vampire and then they’d find something more his speed to watch.

“Oh, there-that guy, he’s one of the vampires,” Mandy said.

“He’s not sparkling…”

“Oh, right, that’s because it’s night, and he’s inside. They only sparkle when they’re out in the weak sunlight. I’m sure they’ll show a scene like that soon.” Mandy had never watched any of the movies in their entirety, and when she had watched before she was always a little buzzed if not outright high, but she had a vague recollection of them using that special effect pretty often.

Mandy’s phone buzzed. She opened the text and saw her friend Quiana had sent her a frantic message that didn’t make much sense. She texted a question mark back, and then her phone rang. She answered it and was greeted by a loud wail on the other end.

“Bastard’s cheating on me! I have PROOF!” Quiana said while sobbing.

Mandy rolled her eyes-people had been telling Quiana her boyfriend was out screwing everyone he could find behind her back since their first date. But, a best friend is a best friend, and you have to be there for them.

“Q, give me a minute and I’ll call you back.” Mandy hung up the phone and looked at her nephew. “You gonna be okay if I talk to my friend for about ten minutes?”

Yevgeny nodded. This movie was boring-it felt like a bunch of teenagers standing around in dark rooms wearing different clothes every few minutes. He wanted to see a vampire sparkle, but so far it hadn’t happened.

“Okay-I’ll be right out on the balcony, and I can see you from there-come and tap on the slider if you need me, okay?”

“Sure, Aunt Mandy.”

Mandy got up off the sofa bed and put her shoes back on and grabbed her hat and a pack of cigarettes and a lighter off the kitchen counter. Another rule Mickey had was no smoking in the same house as Yev, and Mandy didn’t mind that rule, but she had the feeling she’d be doing more listening than talking to Quiana, plus if she had a butt in her mouth maybe she’d be able to refrain from saying she knew what an asshole the boyfriend was all along.

A while later, Mandy was stubbing out a cigarette into the ceramic ashtray she kept on the little table on her metal balcony and noticed it was the fourth butt in there and realized she had probably been on the phone longer than she thought. She cut Quiana off and said, “Sorry, hun, but my nephew’s here and I should check on him. I’ll call you after he goes to sleep, okay?” Quiana had gotten through the first wave of her rant and was calmer. She said she’d wait for Mandy’s call. When Mandy disconnected, she noticed her phone said the time of the call had been over thirty minutes.

When Mandy got inside and got her coat off, she noticed Yevgeny was in a weird position-he had his body lying sideways across the bed, and he had his face and body smushed into the backrest of the mattress, his back to the room. The television was still on and Mandy had to hunt for the remote-it was on the counter where she had taken her smokes from, she must’ve put it down there when she went to call Quiana.

“Yev? You asleep, honey?” Mandy asked.

“No,” a timid little voice answered.

Mandy sat on the edge of the bed and gently rolled Yevgeny over. He was clutching his teddy bear to his chest and his face looked all red and splotchy. Mandy couldn’t tell if he had been crying or if it was just from a lack of air, being pressed against the mattress as he had been.

“You okay?” Mandy asked, a worried frown wrinkling her forehead.

“I’m okay. Aunt Mandy, could we watch Beethoven, please?”

Beethoven was Yevgeny’s favorite movie since he was about three. He had seen it so many times he knew it by heart, but it never failed to calm him so Mandy had her own copy of it at her house in case of emergencies. It was definitely a comfort thing for him at this point.

“Sure, buddy, I’ll find the DVD. You want some popcorn while we watch it?”

“No thank you,” Yevgeny said, still talking in that small voice.

Once Mandy got the movie started she settled in next to Yev who was now lying normally on the bed, propped up against the backrest. He snuggled up to her and was asleep within minutes. She stroked his forehead as he slept, he still didn’t feel warm or seem sick. Maybe he had just been overexcited about getting his Halloween costume and needed to crash.

She left a light on in the living room and went to her room to call her friend. Yevgeny slept through the night.

The next day Yevgeny still seemed a bit quiet and withdrawn, but they spent the morning playing games and had some leftover pizza for lunch and then it was time to bring him home. He was very quiet on the ride, holding on to his bear as he looked out the window. They usually had lively conversations while Mandy chauffeured him around, but he answered any questions she could think of with one or two word answers, and finally she asked if he wanted to listen to the radio and he said yes and they just listened to that for the rest of the ride.

When they got to Mickey’s, Yevgeny’s feet were really dragging as they made their way inside. Mickey greeted them at the door, but Yev just slid by him and kept walking to his room.

“He still feeling bad? Why didn’t you call?” Mickey asked Mandy.

“He’s not sick, he’s just…” Mandy shrugged. “He wanted to watch Beethoven last night.”

“He did? What’s bothering him?” Mickey wondered.

“Beats me,” Mandy said. “Look, I gotta run, I told Quiana I’d help her pack up all Derek’s shit and help her kick it down the stairs.”

Mickey raised his eyebrows. “She finally listened to someone about that asshole?”

“Naw, she decided to surprise him at work and found him spread eagle on the desk with some chick riding him like a pro.” Mandy handed over Yev’s duffel bag and the Halloween costume on its hanger.

Mickey walked down the hall to Yevgeny’s room and was surprised to find the door was closed. He paused, and decided he ought to knock, even though Yevgeny had never shut his door all the way closed before.

“Yeah?” Yevgeny responded to Mickey’s soft knock.

“Um, is it okay if I come in? I’ve got your costume here and I was hoping to see you in it,” Mickey said through the closed door.

“Can I put it on later?” Yevgeny asked. “When Ian’s here?”

“Oh, sure. I know he can’t wait to see you in it too-he’ll be home from work soon,” Mickey said. “You want to color the faces on your pumpkins while we wait for him?”

“Can I do that later too?”

“Sure-Yevgeny, are you feeling sick?”

“No, Daddy. I just want to play in here with T Bear.”

Mickey sighed. “Okay, I’ll be right in the living room if you need me, okay?”

“Yup.”

Mickey was watching Ice Road Truckers when he heard Yev shutting the bathroom door about twenty minutes later. He was just getting up to check on Yevgeny when the front door opened and Ian came in. Mickey stood by the couch and pulled Ian into a hug when he got close enough, returning Ian’s kiss and letting it get intense for a moment. Ian definitely still had a glow about him from their evening alone, and Mickey was not immune.

“Yev home yet?” Ian asked, still holding on to Mickey, looking down into his eyes.

“Yeah, Mandy got him here a little while ago.”

“Good,” Ian grinned, pulling something out of his pocket. “I stopped at the dollar store, I wanna show him something.”

They walked down the hall, Ian behind Mickey. The bathroom door opened and Yev stopped in his tracks when he saw his bigs in the hallway.

“Ready to show us your costume, Yev? Ian’s home…”

Ian put his hands on Mickey’s hips and popped out from behind him, crouching so he was down at Yevgeny’s level.

“I vant to suck your blood,” Ian said in a cheesy accent, the words muffled somewhat by the plastic fangs he had stuck in his mouth.

If Yevgeny hadn’t just gone to the bathroom, he would’ve peed his pants then and there. As it was, he screamed and squeezed himself between Mickey and the wall and took off running, slamming his bedroom door behind him as soon as he had cleared the threshold.

“The fuck?” Mickey muttered. “Hey, Yev? What’s the matter? Ian’s just clowning around…” Mickey was at Yev’s door. He went to open it, but the doorknob wouldn’t turn. He looked at Ian, who looked just as puzzled as Mickey. There was no way those plastic teeth were all that scary.

“It’s locked?” Ian said.

“I didn’t even know this door could lock, did you?” Mickey said back. He knocked on the door. “Hey, Yev? The door won’t open.”

“Go away!” Yevgeny sounded like he was crying.

“Yev, I can’t do that. I need to see you,” Mickey said, sounding concerned.

“I’m okay, I wanna be by myself,” Yevgeny choked out.

“Yevgeny, I’m your father and what I say goes. Now open this door.”

“Won’t.” Oh boy, Ian recognized that tone even if Mickey didn’t. That was the tone of a Milkovich determined not to give in. Ian gently pulled Mickey away from the door a little bit so he could talk softly through it.

“Yev? I’m sorry I scared you. Those were just plastic fangs from the dollar store-I got you a set too, wanna try them”

“NO!” Yev screeched, sounding terrified.

“Yevgeny Milkovich, open this door before I have to break it down,” Mickey barked.

“Go AWAY!” Yev screamed back.

“Mickey, Mickey, let’s let him have a couple of minutes,” Ian whispered, tugging on Mickey’s arm again, this time to get him to walk down the hall.

When they were back in the living room, Ian sat on the couch, but Mickey was pacing.

“What’s up with that kid lately? He’s been acting squirrelly for days now,” Mickey said.

“Did Mandy say how he was with her?” Ian asked.

“Not really, but I’m going to ask her again,” Mickey said, pulling his phone out of his back pocket. “Mandy, what the fuck’s wrong with Yev?” he said when she connected, not bothering to waste time with a hello.

“How the fuck should I know? He’s your kid,” Mandy snapped back.

“Did something happen at your place? At the store? He wouldn’t try on his costume for me, and now he’s locked in his room.”

“He wouldn’t try on the costume? He looks so cute in it-the only reason I didn’t send you a picture was because I figured he’d want to show it to you guys himself,” Mandy said.

“What happened that made him want Beethoven last night?” Mickey said. Ian raised his eyebrows at Mickey. Ian knew needing Beethoven was usually a red flag with Yev.

“Jesus, I don’t know-look, I was just on my way home from Quiana’s and I’m closer to your place than mine. Keep your panties on and I’ll be there in a few and I’ll tell you everything we did yesterday.”

When Mandy got to the house, she sat down with Mickey and Ian and ran down the events of the previous day.

“He was fine trying on the costume, and then we got a bag of candy-oh wait, before that, we were looking at the grown up costumes and he showed me a picture of Dracula asked me if vampires were real,” Mandy remembered.

“And what did you tell him?” Mickey demanded.

“I told him they were,” Mandy said.

“Why the fuck would you tell him that?” Mickey said, rapidly losing whatever cool he had managed to hang on to since Yev locked himself in his room.

“Because you told us all to tell him fantasy stuff is real, shithead!” Mandy was getting agitated too.

“I did what now, bitch?” Mickey sputtered, his eyebrows going dangerously high.

“You said you want him to believe Santa and all the Disney and Pixar characters are real!” Mandy defended herself.

“Yeah, the good stuff-not monsters and vampires, Jesus, Mandy!”

Ian tried to calm the waters a little. “Mickey, she’s got a point. Yevgeny believes in Star Wars, and there’s bad guys in that. If we’re going to have him believe in heroes, we have to accept there’s villains too.”

Mickey rubbed his eyes tiredly. “Yeah, okay, I can see that,” he sighed. “Sorry, Mandy.”

“And, Mickey? I did try-I told him vampires didn’t look like you anymore…”

“You said what?” Mickey asked, getting right back on edge. Even Ian looked confused at that.

“Well, yeah, the picture he showed me-pale skin, black hair slicked back, dude looked like you, so I figured that’s what was freaking the kid out. So I told him how now vampires are sexy like Angel and Spike and the guy in Twilight.”

“Mandy, you did not tell my son those men are ‘sexy’…” Mickey said, sounding more tired than ever.

“Well, no, of course not, I just told him they don’t look like Dracula anymore and we went home and I showed him a little of Twilight so he could see you don’t look anything like a sparkling vampire…” Mandy trailed off, remembering. “Although, we never got to a part in the movie where he saw the sparkling.”

“Well, what did he see,” Mickey asked, getting more exasperated by the minute.

“I…I’m not sure. I got a call from Quiana and went out on the balcony-I only meant to be gone a minute, but the movie did play for a while when I wasn’t in there,” Mandy admitted.

“Mandy…” Mickey was about to yell, Mandy and Ian both knew it.

“Why don’t we try watching the movie to figure out what bothered Yev?” Ian said quickly, before Mickey could say anything else.

“Good idea,” Mandy said, jumping up to find the TV remote. She found the movie on demand and hit play. They all settled onto the couch to watch.

“I’m gonna grab a beer, you guys want anything?” Mandy said, figuring she’d be there for a while.

“I’ll have a water, please,” Ian said. Mickey just folded his arms over his chest and refused to answer.

As the opening credits played, a name caught Ian’s eye. “Oh, I had forgotten Rami Malek is in this,” he said.

Mickey raised an eyebrow and looked over at Ian. “And that matters to you because…? You got a thing for him or something, Ian?”

Ian grinned. “So what if I do? You want to tell me you don’t think he’s hot?”

“You gonna give me one of those pass things if I admit it?” Mickey asked. “Like, if I ever met him, and he was down with it, you wouldn’t mind…”

“Fuck you, no way I’m letting him get his hands on you,” Ian all but growled.

“There you go,” Mickey grinned.

Mandy rejoined them, sitting next to her brother and handing Ian his water by reaching over Mickey. Mickey took that opportunity to grab the beer bottle from her hand and take a long swig.

“Ew, germs,” she groused out of long habit, snatching the bottle back and wiping the top off with her hand. The three of them settled in more comfortably and focused on the TV screen.

After about ten minutes Mickey said, “This is boring.”

Mandy said, “Yeah, this isn’t where we started watching, let me fast forward.” Once the movie was at a point she remembered seeing the day before, she let it play at normal speed again.

The movie wasn’t making much sense to any of them, even to Ian and Mandy, who had seen it before.

“Hey, it was once, and I was high,” Ian defended himself when Mickey was getting frustrated that Ian couldn’t explain what was happening in the story.

Suddenly a new character popped into the story, and Ian sat up straighter right away. Mandy muttered, “Oh wow, no way!” and Mickey cocked his head to one side, trying to see what had the people on either side of him reacting.

“What?” he finally said, not seeing it.

“Mickey, that blond vamp, he looks just like you,” Mandy said.

“That albino-looking fuck? What are you talking about, he looks nothing…” Mickey was cut off by Ian.

“Mick, he really does-dye your hair platinum blond, pop in some creepy contact lenses-that’s you.”

“Fuck off,” Mickey said.

“Oh man, poor little Yevgeny!” Mandy said. “Here I am telling him vampires don’t resemble his daddy, and then I put on a movie where one looks more like you than even Dracula does…”

“And then I come home with those fangs, threatening to suck his blood…” Ian added.

Mickey got up and started walking out of the room.

“Where are you going?” Ian called after him.

“To talk to my son-and shut that shit off, that movie’s boring as fuck,” Mickey called back over his shoulder.

Mickey got to Yev’s door and knocked softly. “Hey, Tough Guy, let me in please?” His voice was gentle but firm. Time to put an end to this. “I just want to talk to you, to tell you I’m not,” he swallowed, rolling his eyes, “a vampire. Yev, there’s no such thing, they’re just made up, I promise.” He heard a little click, and then the doorknob turned and the door opened a crack.

Yevgeny looked up at his father with red, tired eyes. “You promise?” Yev knew Mickey never made promises lightly, and he had explained to Yev that that was because he’d never promise something that he couldn’t do, or that wasn’t true, and had taught Yevgeny never to make a promise he didn’t intend or couldn’t keep either.

“I promise, Yevgeny, cross my heart.” And Mickey did so with his index finger.

Yev opened the door all the way and let Mickey come sit on his bed with him.

“Okay, so, I know you saw a picture of a guy who looked a little like me, and some guy in that dumb movie Aunt Mandy showed you…”

“And Ian was watching a black and white movie,” Yev interjected.

“Oh yeah?” Mickey’s eyebrows rose, he hadn’t known about that. “Well, anyway, Dracula and that other guy-all those vampires in that other movie-they’re all made up, you know?   Just pretend?” Yevgeny still looked skeptical, so Mickey tried a different tack. “Don’t you think if vampires were real we’d know some? There’s all these rules in the stories about vampires-they can’t see themselves in mirrors, they can turn into bats and fly around…You’ve seen me in mirrors, and don’t you think if I could turn into a bat and fly I would?”

Yevgeny giggled at that. His dad would definitely fly around if he could.

“And vampires can’t stand garlic, it’s their kryptonite,” Ian said from the doorway. “And your daddy loves garlic, right?” The two people who got all of Mickey’s kisses in life exchanged a knowing look.

“Right, Ian,” Yev nodded.

Ian came all the way into the room and sat on Yevgeny’s bed too. He opened up his hand and showed Yev the plastic teeth.

“See? Just a cheap toy, not real,” Ian said. Yev picked them up off Ian’s hand and looked at them closely, then stuck them into his mouth and smiled around them. Ian laughed and Mickey pulled Yev into a sideways hug.

“Okay, do you believe we’re all just real people now?” Yev nodded. “How about showing Ian and me how you look in that costume Aunt Mandy bought you?”

Yev nodded and took the teeth out and handed them back to Ian, then scrambled down off the bed. When he got to the door he looked back at his bigs.

“Are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles real? Cuz Michelangelo sounds just like…”

“Aw, Yev!”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope this puts readers in the holiday spirit ;) So, a couple of things-I've only seen Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 once myself, and it was a while ago, although I do plan to watch it again this Halloween season-well, at least the scenes Rami and Noel are in. Also, that BB8 costume is not available at Target, I made up my dream costume because the real life one is weird-have you seen it? It's almost like a bag you put over a kid's head! Who green lit that?


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